3/31/05
Tracking Mack: March 31
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Jerry Gray
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On the Spring Game: "We would like to have the attitude of game day. We will have a pregame meal, walk into the stadium, and have the same atmosphere as the first game for next fall. We feel the opening game will be a night game. We are going to put ones against ones and be at full speed. We want to watch them compete. We will see how the scrimmage goes to figure out how guys match up. It will be a huge decision-making game for us watching the film to see who will be where when we start back up in the fall. We will run any plays that we used last fall because they know it and have it on film. Any of the ideas that we have put in this spring either side of the ball we will keep under wraps.
"We can probably do more things this scrimmage, just because we have the package that we had last fall. I want us to be really aggressive against the run on defense and I want to see our running backs make some yards. I want Vince Young and Matt Norgden to be able to show everyone how much they both have improved. They have both had a really good spring and improved a lot in the passing game. We would like to see some plays out of our linebackers. I have told the guys that every fan that takes their time and energy on a Saturday night to come out, should walk out excited about the fall."
On the team: "One of the really hard things to do is to figure out who you are as a team, because it changes every year. Even if you have the same players, some of the dynamics change. We were concerned coming out of the Rose Bowl if we wanted to be complacent and think we were pretty good, or come back and be ready to work. The attitude we approached it with was that (the players) haven't done anything yet on this team, because last year's team did, you haven't, so lets start over. We have worked them harder and hit them more and they have responded really really well throughout the spring, so I think we will see that Saturday night."
On Ramonce Taylor: "He has definitely showed us that he can be a tailback. Hopefully everyone will see what we see on Saturday night. He will stay at tailback. We do not feel that anybody can do what Ricky (Williams) did or what Cedric Benson did and carry the load by themselves. So, we will probably alternate tailbacks next year. He is different than Cedric, he is different than Ricky. We will probably do different things with him. Unlike them, he is really fast and a lot bigger than he looks because he has the really skinny ankles and legs. We will spread him out and try to give him space. Ramonce runs more like Vince (Young), in that he gets people a little off balance and then he can run through them with his quickness."
On the defense: The two defensive ends today would be the same. It would be Brian Robison and Tim Crowder. The thing that you get with both (Brian) Orakpo and Mike Williams is the best pass rushers that we have had. We look at putting them in against passing teams more and putting them in situations where it is long yardage because they have the ability to be the tackle with out blitzing. We have more tackles than we have ends.
"Aaron Harris is so different from DJ (Derrick Johnson). He is shorter and his game is the inside game because he plays so hard and has the ability to knock a guy loose. So, he is the big hit guy. I thought he played with passion and intensity in the Rose Bowl. We have told him that for us to be the defensive that we want to be, then he needs to play how he did in the Rose Bowl. Our question mark on defense is the inexperience at linebacker."
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